Textile artist conjures with the history and allure of lace

•	Newsroom
•	Media Releases
•	UTS Experts
•	UTSpeaks

Textile artist conjures with the history and allure of lace


It seems hard to believe today, but lace was once such a high-priced obsession that fashionable young men bankrupted themselves to possess it and countries were prepared to ban its trade. The history and allure of lace, especially the detailed craft of traditional lace making, has inspired an exhibition of new work by University of Technology, Sydney lecturer and textile designer Cecilia Heffer. Laced, opening on Saturday 3 June at the Sheffer Gallery in Darlington, uses contemporary tools, such as laser cutting and digital printing, to explore and reinterpret the intricacies of lace. Ms Heffer, who lectures in the Fashion and Textiles program in the UTS School of Design, said the exhibition grew from her experience viewing the historical lace collection at the Powerhouse Museum and the work of people who have preserved the handcraft of lacemaking. "The exhibition consists of a collection of intimate works that explore lace patterning through transfer and digital print, silkscreen printing, gold foiling and stitch and laser cutting," she said. "The handmade is represented by the digital in printed works that are delicate, intricate and ethereal. "The artworks have been specifically inspired by fifteenth-century Italian braid that has been translated into hand-printed patterns on silks and organzas. The printed silks have been further transformed by a process of surface manipulations. "The artworks hang as 3.5 metre lengths from the gallery rafters in a play of translucent pattern and shadow. The viewer is invited to enjoy the suggestions of decorations from another era overlayed with a playful exploration of technology from today." Ms Heffer said seeing skilled exponents of bobbin lace at work and "struggling" herself with the traditional technique under the tutelage of Blue Mountains lacemaker and lace historian Rosemary Shepherd, she could well understand the high status of lace before the advent of mechanisation. "Looking into the history at the Powerhouse's Lace Study Centre it was amazing to discover that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries men of good standing were known to mortgage their properties to buy it," she said. "Apparently at one stage things got so out of hand that France banned trade in lace to stop the country's entire output from being shipped out." A specialist in pattern for printed cloth, Cecilia Heffer gained her Masters in Textiles at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and spent a number of years working in leading textile studios in both London and New York. Her designs have been produced for a range of clients including Liberty Scarves London, Calvin Klein, Jaeger and Zandra Rhodes. Laced, which runs until Saturday 24 June, has been funded by the Australia Council Visual Arts Board. Friday 26 May 2006